Will the OTA's drink your milkshake?

Will The OTAs Drink Your Milkshake? [Mewscast]

The OTAs have been acquiring a broad range of hospitality tech businesses to help fuel their relentless expansion and diversification. Priceline and Expedia have even launched startup innovation hubs to muscle ever closer to the bleeding edge of the industry.

But how successful have these acquisitions been to date? Booking.com is a rare example of an acquisition that has improved and gone onto bigger things but most brands have withered away and struggled once acquired. What are the most exciting startups in the hospitality industry today and who will be acquired next?

Meanwhile hotels remain deeply worried about handing over access to their precious data to the predatory OTAs and there are also several startups who are managing to successfully compete with the OTAs themselves.

And what of Google, Apple, Facebook and Alibaba (GAFA)? Will they soon open their purses to invest in hospitality and travel tech?

Mews founders Richard Valtr and Matthijs Welle sat down with Erik Tengen of Oaky to discuss the past, present and future of the acquisition strategy by the OTAs and who they would and wouldn’t sell their own businesses to...

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Richard Valtr grew up in family of Hotel Investors and Management. He founded Mews Systems upon discovering there was no suitable PMS product on the market when working as a project manager building a new hotel in the centre of Prague.

Matthijs Welle is the CEO of Mews Systems and has 15 years hospitality experience. Matthijs graduated from Hilton’s world renowned ‘Elevator Program’ and was previously the Director of Sales for Eastern Europe and Russia with Hilton.

Erik Tengen, co-founder of Oaky has a vast experience in the hospitality technology landscape, with a passion for innovation being at the core. Oaky is a commission-free and personalised pre-stay upsell platform for hotels to maximise profit and enhance the guest experience.